Endo wrote:Btw, can I ask you a question in return, can you tell the difference (or is there) between Kanji/Hanzi written by Japanese and Chinese?

Sorry, I needed some time to google it.Well, I know next to nothing about Chinese. Of course I know there are many common letters because Japanese kanji was originally imported from China. But only thing I can tell you is that we distinguish the difference because it doesn't look like Japanese. When the character itself is completely same, it's difficult. But usually there exist subtle differences such as...well...the choice of font or the color or the material or something like that. I can find some fingerprint of cultural difference.Does it make sense?

EDIT:Ah...maybe I misunderstood your question, didn't I? I thought you wanted to know how I can make out the difference but you asked about the difference between them? Sorry, I'm not good at English. In that case, sorry again, I have no idea.

Sorry if the question was maybe wrong formulated, I mean (obviously not counting the differences in kanji and kana) can you tell the difference in handwriting if the same characters were written by a Japanese person and a Chinese person (handwriting-wise).もし、中国人が同じ書いた漢字を日本人との比べたら日本人としてNileCatさんはそれを分かれることができますか？更に、その二つの間に違うところがありますか？(I hope this makes sense)

Actually, it's a very good question. Technically speaking, it is impossible to distinguish them.However, there are usually subtle differences. For instance, preferable style of 跳ね somewhat differs. It's like a...fashion. So it changes by the culture or with times. And as you know, 書道 is a kind of art in our oriental culture. You can see something like...well...personality or feeling or creativity in someone's writing. In that sense, you can recognize the person who wrote it through their handwriting. I'm not sure but I think I could "profile" the handwriting a bit like I guessed that you have learned 書道.It's not necessarily true. But maybe you know what I mean.

Yeah I totally feel you, and true what you say, your handwriting does say something about a person. I think one's handwriting is important not because people are using it less and less than before (everything is done typing these days) but because its also expressive. My 'regular' ABC handwriting is also equally important so I never neglected that.Did you also take 書道? I reckon you did right?

I've been trying to learn Hiragana the last 2 days but no matter how much I try I can't getthe curves and the arrow-looking stuff at the etches. (Hope you get what I'm talking about because I can't explain it any better)

That is when I write it small like I'm used to with the ABC, can only get it look somehow alike when I'm writing it really big. ^^

So my question to you is: do you have any ideas of a good way to get it better (except practice all day long), like a bigger pencil. (Just an example)

Yaizon wrote:I've been trying to learn Hiragana the last 2 days but no matter how much I try I can't getthe curves and the arrow-looking stuff at the etches. (Hope you get what I'm talking about because I can't explain it any better).

I'm afraid I don't... maybe you could give us an example character that has an "arrow-looking thing" in it, and describe which part of the character has that?

By "curves", do you mean loops, like the right-side of characters like ね or ぬ ?

The "spikes" aren't strictly necessary, and don't always appear in all people's handwriting. However, it's a pretty natural stroke. You're just... leaving the pen (or, traditionally, brush) on the paper a little longer while you're in the process of lifting the pen (while moving in a certain direction... usually toward the next component you're about to draw.

For instance, after drawing the left-side component of い from top to bottom, when you lift up your pen you will be moving it to the top of the right side to begin drawing the next component. If you happened to leave your pen (/brush) on the paper just a little bit longer than when you actually finished writing that left-side component, it makes that hook naturally. In some stylized, "brushed"-looking versions of the character, that "hook" will actually connect all the way from the bottom of that left-side component, to the top of the right-side component, in a whispy trail (I wish I could find pictures of these to demonstrate...). I'm pretty sure that's how these "hooks" originated—laziness, basically, or a sort of stylism—and then later they became codified as the official way to terminate the strokes in certain parts of certain characters.

What's the trouble you're having with the little loops? They don't have to be big and overly "loopy"... there may not even have to be really any visible white in the little loop, so long as you can tell that the pen "looped" while drawing (be careful that your ね is at least distinguishable from your れ, though).

Perhaps if you could post some pictures (mobile phone?), we could see if there's anything actually wrong with your normal-sized hiragana...

micah: Forgot to explain earlier, was just so furious of not getting the loops correct I pissed out, when I woke up today and practised some more it started to smoother. Was just me failing by being frustrated.

And thanks alot with the explanation to both you and phreadom, it helped alot even by the first characters!Really appreciate it, now when I got something to go by it will probably get less frustrating and easier, so cheers alot and have a pleasent day!

In writing an essay for my Japanese class and was given genkoyoshi paper. We must write at least 2 pages. I was wondering if there is any rule for starting a new page? Like in America, we have our last name and the page number in the upper righthand corner.

There are a lot of rules. Unfortunately, I don't know them. You can, however, try googling 原稿用紙 使い方, or 'how to use genkouyousi' (different romanizations or translations of 原稿用紙 will probably have different results). I do remember from another thread that there are different rules for different circumstances, so the only way to know if you're following 'the rules' is to ask your instructor, but the differences are pretty minor (although they may not feel minor if you get points knocked off).

Endo wrote:Sorry if the question was maybe wrong formulated, I mean (obviously not counting the differences in kanji and kana) can you tell the difference in handwriting if the same characters were written by a Japanese person and a Chinese person (handwriting-wise).もし、中国人が同じ書いた漢字を日本人との比べたら日本人としてNileCatさんはそれを分かれることができますか？更に、その二つの間に違うところがありますか？(I hope this makes sense)